A crossover between ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' and ''SinsOfASolarEmpire'', written by Dalek Ix.

Equestria has been part of the Trade Order for a thousand years, enjoying prosperity. But as the Summer Sun Celebration looms and Nightmare Moon's return is on the horizon, forces align on both sides.

It can be found [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/4387/Friends-of-a-Solar-Empire here]] and [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7556482/1/Friends_of_a_Solar_Empire here]]. And [[http://forums.spacebattles.com/showpost.php?p=6995016&postcount=1 here's]] an index on the Spacebattles forum.

[[Administrivia/NeedsABetterDescription A better description]].

----!!Friends of a Solar Empire contains examples of:

* AcePilot: Pegasi and Griffons in general. That someone managed to find a way to let them control fighter craft with their wings helps.* AllThereInTheManual: The Spacebattles threads.** To elaborate: Most of the fic's WorldBuilding is on the forums, in the form of "extra documents" written InUniverse (for instance, Cloudsdale is described in a tourist brochure). There's also some elaboration of story elements in the discussion. None of this is ''necessary'' to understand the fic, but definitely helps flesh out the story.* AndroidsArePeopleToo: In the Trade Order, AI's are considered legal citizens, and are usually treated with as much respect as those of flesh and blood.* AndIMustScream: WordOfGod on what happened to Discord. The Traders sealed his statue in a small ship, put it on auto pilot towards empty space, and kicked on the FTL. A ship can ''only'' drop out of FTL if it enters a strong gravity well, and their are ''very'' few planets or stars in the ship's path. And Discord is ''still'' stuck as a statue during all of this.** To make matters even worse for the bastard, the overall flight path is perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy, so he's heading straight into intergalactic space, the emptiest place in existence. There won't be any conflict to free him for a long time.** Also what happened to some members of the Horizon Corporation, also by WordOfGod. While the Universal Trade Sanction (which makes them unable to even buy ''food'') was handed down by the Investigation Directorate, the various factions of the TEC also handed down their own punishments...including ''Cognizant Cryocontainment''. * AuthorAppeal: Crossovers. This ''is'' the same guy who brought us ''Fanfic/AHero''.* ColonelBadass: Colonel Rekav.* CassandraTruth: [[MySignificanceSenseIsTingling Pinkie Pie]] keeps telling high command that their orbital fighter bays could ''really'' do with some flak-cannons. Predictably they take no notice.** Averted when [[GodEmperor Celestia]] tells the TEC that her currently insane sister will be returning to wreak vengeance soon. [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy They send a battlefleet.]] And Admiral Kol.* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: The Trade Order. Their response to Discord was to [[AndIMustScream stick him into an autonomous ship and kick on the FTL, sending into intergalactic space, the emptiest place in existance.]]** Their response to [[PhysicalGod Nightmare Moon]] was to send a battlefleet.** The Horizon Corporation, who were very, ''very'' thorough in creating a magical supersoldier that wouldn't disobey. Poor Twilight.* DisproportionateRetribution: The Trade Order's Investigation Directorate. Their response to the actions of the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Horizon Corporation]] was to hire a [[MoreDakka Marza-class dreadnought]] to blow up the asteroid their facility had been built on, and then ban the rest of the Traders from doing business with them. Not even to buy ''food''.** [[AssholeVictim ...Disproportionate?]]** To clarify? "Rest of the Traders" is the entire known galaxy. * {{Expy}}: Fluttershy runs into an old friend who acts very much like [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 Heavy Weapons Guy]].* FateWorseThanDeath: A Universal Trade Sanction, which essentially bans you from ''all economic activity'', '''permanently'''. Even buying ''food.'' * FictionalDocument: The "Extra Document" files, which provide much of the fic's WorldBuilding.* FusionFic.* GattacaBabies: Twilight Sparkle is a particularly [[TearJerker tragic]] version of this trope.* GeneticEngineering: Deconstructed with Twilight Sparkle. It is implied that she is genuinely dangerous with her mental block restricting most of her potential disabled, and a great deal of her personality is based around this fact of her life.* GoshDangItToHeck: A human colonel is described as wearing "an apple-eating grin" when [[NoodleIncident a crazy shore leave involving Fluttershy]] is mentioned. An odd example, as it appears in narration, not dialogue.* ProudWarriorRace: Gryphons, Pegasi and the Kol family. It made them oddballs in the peaceful Trade Order. Then the Vasari turned up.* HumansAreWarriors: As explained in a letter to the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Gryphus Republic]] the humans of the Trade Order are peaceful by conscious choice, not by natural inclination.* HypercompetentSidekick: Lampshaded; Rarity thinks the only reason she survived in position to become competent was thanks to the local ColonelBadass.* MegaCorp: The TEC is an alliance of these; Rarity's ship is even owned by one.* MythologyGag: Possibly accidental, but there is an achievement in "SinsOfASolarEmpire" called Space Ponies, which you get via a random event, namely discovering one of your planets has, well, space ponies. * NoodleIncident: Apparently, Fluttershy joined Rarity's crew in some rather over-the-top antics on their last shore leave.** And Colonel Rekav is no longer allowed to gamble ''anything'', for some reason.* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Averted. The author goes out of his way to make it clear that space is ''fucking'' '''''huge'''''. He even describes Twilight and Spike seeing the TDN ''Novus'' as a tiny point in the distance as a minor miracle.--> '''Dalek Ix, after doing a rundown of how distant things are in space:''' ...And I'm not even going outside the ''solar system'', which on cosmological terms is roughly equivalent to one's house. No wonder [=SoaSE=] ships go into FTL for in-system travel. * ShoutOut: Several, mostly to ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'', such as Rainbow Dash's callsign (Starbuck), the Everfree Forest Cloudbase, which superficially resembles a squared off Cylon Basestar, and the use of the word "[[UnusualEuphemism frak]]".** Equestria's Argonev starbase is called the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasztanka Kasztanka]]''.* TheStinger: Both chapters so far end with flashbacks to Twilight's past, in the form of "holo-vids". [[spoiler: Word of God is that Celestia is the one watching them.]]* SuperSoldier: Twilight was intended to be this. Her rescuers had other ideas.* TheHighQueen: Princess Celestia, who is still ruling Equestria, controls most of the pony species by the strength of tradition and by being an honestly good ruler and noted as being one of ''the'' most important members of the TEC.* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: How the Traders dealt with the Horizon Corporation. Along with their lab (and the asteroid it was on) being blown to smithereens, the entire organization was essentially ''erased'': all of Horizon's money and resources were seized, and ''everyone'' who worked for them was either killed or arrested. Moreover, the Traders were ''completely'' banned from doing business with Horizon's employees, via the Universal Trade Sanction--the bastards can't even buy '''food.''' And that's not all: the UTC was handed down by the Traders as a whole, so the various members also laid down their own punishments ''in addition'' to all of the above. Literally ''nothing'' is left of Horizon by the time the story starts.** WordOfGod has said this detail was done partly to avoid the TurnedAgainstTheirMasters trope, as detailed below.* TranquilFury: In a flashback, A TEC fleet arrives at a planet conquered by the Vasari, and finds it [[MoralEventHorizon turned into a giant slave camp and strip mine]]. When soldiers are sent down on a rescue mission, Rarity calmly orders them to shoot ''any'' Vasari they see, no survivors. Even the resident ColonelBadass is surprised. * TranshumanTreachery: A predecessor to the Trade Order tried to do this, [[FinalSolution in a very complete way]]. They're the reason why [[NoTranshumanismAllowed Transhumanism isn't allowed]]. * TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: Averted in regards to Twilight Sparkle, because ''someone else'' already did it for her. ** [[WordOfGod And Twilight's creators will NOT be coming back. Ever.]]* [[OfficerAndAGentleman Officer and a Gentlepony]]: Rarity, of course. * UnusualUserInterface: Pegasi and griffons control their fighters with their wings.** Even Rainbow Dash finds it a bit odd, musing that it came about because "a human (took) a foal’s suggestion too seriously".* WorldBuilding: Arguably one of the most popular aspects of the fic.